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Overview

We have a question: what is cybersecurity? Or, even better, what is a cyber-secure system? People believe that cybersecurity can be defined as a property (e.g., confidentiality) but, can we say that a system in which that property holds is actually secure? Obviously not, just publish any confidentiality scheme and wait 5 minutes :) Well… maybe cybersecurity is a set of properties? Again, show me that system in which those properties hold and I bet I’ll find an insecurity somewhere. So, if a cybersecure system is the one without cybersecurity attacks, is there a set of properties that makes that system secure? No! That’s the point! Those who wear a black hat don’t care about how we define security. Nor the entire universe. A scientific hypothesis on what a cybersecure system is must predict the security and insecurities of that system so we can empirically test the predictions (i.e. trying to hack our way into the supposedly secure system). After, and only after, one can become the “momentary [cybersecurity] master of a fraction of a dot” or desperately hope in a “better luck next time”.

It is evident that an attack (an authentication bypass) is made possible by a vulnerability (a sql-injection) which, in turn, is made possible by an error somewhere in the design or implementation of a system (or procedure, e.g., an authentication system).

A: So, what if we had a system (or a piece of code) that is error-free?

B: It’s impossible!

A: Ok, but what if? Wouldn’t we have a secure system?

B: Well, ok… you theorist! Is having an impossible secure system of any use?

A: Maybe? While it’s true that a human being cannot fly, it’s also true that there are interesting approximations such as airplanes or the ESS. So, let’s stop with the chattering and start building a trivial (“thanks” Rice… ) system secure by trying predicting all its errors!

B: Wait… what’s an error?

Sorry, “there’s no royal road to science” and while it may be easy to grasp the path we’re following, there’s a bit of math that you’ve got to digest before. If you are interested in helping us “carrying the [cybersecurity] stone”, we’ll share with you our paper on a theory of error (and we’d be happy to discuss it with you) and collaborate to one of the following thesis.

A quantitative but non-inductive approach to cyber-security risk assessment

Several standards mandate a secure-by-design approach in which cybersecurity shall be considered at the very early stages of the design process. For example, the DO-326A – “Airworthiness Security Process Specification” requires a cybersecurity risk assessment of the design and “are the only Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) by FAA & EASA for aviation cybersecurity airworthiness certification, as of 2019” as pointed out by SAE. Standards do not describe in detail how to perform a cybersecurity risk assessment and only vaguely define the overall objective, which can be summarized as to provide an understanding of the potential cybersecurity risks.

In this thesis, the student will work on the correlation between the hypothesis that errors can be used as a measure of the cybersecirity risk and focus on one of the following (or whatever great ideas you have):

Want more? We already reviewed many standards and approaches and we created our own risk assessment prototype, but we are still lacking many fundamental features such as: